installing a new hard drive

[coyote454]

I have a WD HD and want to add a second unit.  Bought a new WD HD and connected the power cable as well as the data cable (to an installed SATA card). The SATA card was added recently when I upgraded a DVD drive that was SATA.

I was properly grounded at all times when installing the HD, and although the computer fires up perfectly, it won't recognize the new HD. I can't imagine the WD is a DOA.  The main HD is not SATA.  What's up?

Thanks,

Mike

[fgdn17]

assuming your new HD is sata, check jumpers on your sata DVD and your new HD...make sure there is no conflict ie both
as master...

[coyote454]

The new HD is SATA; there are no jumpers on the DVD unit and the HD unit says on the case that SATA does not require jumpers. But you brought up an interesting idea.  The HD and DVD are on the same internal SATA card, so I'll disconnect the DVD and see if the HD will be recognized.

At least it's a place to start.  Thanks fgdn17.

[coyote454]

Okay, an update.  I disconnected the DVD as it is SATA and may be conflicting with the new SATA HD.  The new HD is still not recognized, and even after I ran the program "Fresh Diagnose", which shows about everything on the computer, the new HD is STILL not recognized!

However, when I check with the device manager, it shows the HD, and says the SCSI device is working properly.  How's can that be, as the unit doesn't show up when I access "Explore" and see what's on the computer?

I've even tried to update drivers, thinking it needed something more than it has, but the message comes back that the driver is current.

Now I'm confused!

[Salmon Trout]

Is the drive partitioned and formatted with a filesystem?

[coyote454]

Formatted?  Probably not as I just received the unit in the mail and it's never been installed on a computer.  I would think it should at least be recognized even if it wasn't formatted yet, or is this not accurate?

No instructions with the unit but I've installed HDs before and never had a problem.  But I always had a EIDE unit before.  With only one device (the new HD) on the SATA card, the HD still isn't showing.

Weird.

[Salmon Trout]

I cannot see anywhere what OS you are running. If it is Windows of some sort, what happens if you go into Computer Management and within that, Disk Management?

[oldun]

Did you verify that the disk is correctly recognised in the BIOS?

[coyote454]

I'm running Windows XP.  When I go into Computer Management, the new HD is recognized as an "unknown", is not initialized, and shows the disk "unallocated". It also shows the current disk as "C", which is normal, but doesn't show the new HD with any letter designation.  Getting stranger.

[Allan]

You need to format it.

[coyote454]

Okay, how do you format a HD that isn't recognized in "Explorer"? I don't see where I can format it from the Computer Management screen.

[Allan]

In Disk Management right-click on the drive and choose "format"

[coyote454]

When I right-click on the drive in Computer Management I get "properties" and "help" only.  Must be another way?

[Allan]

I'm getting ready to log off, but if you could upload a screen shot of what you see in disk management that would be helpful to us. You should be able to right-click on the drive (in the lower half of the screen) and get an option to format.

[coyote454]

I've saved the screen shot, but don't know how to upload it onto this page. Still can't get a 'format' option.